Northampton names Candice Walczak new schools business manager

NORTHAMPTON — Candice Walczak, business administrator for the South Hadley Public Schools, is the new finance chief for the Northampton School Department.

Walczak was chosen by a search committee and appointed by the School Committee June 23. She will begin her new position Oct. 1. “I thought it was time to look into some changes,” Walczak said about why she is making the move.

The business manager oversees the School Department’s financial operations, including the budget process. Mayor David Narkewicz and interim business manager Don Scott aided in the search.

Walczak replaces school district business manager Mark McLaughlin, who was placed on administrative leave with pay March 3 and resigned at the end of June, said School Superintendent John Provost.

Regina Nash, who was interim superintendent during the school year that just ended, had said that McLaughlin’s leave was not the result “of any sort of investigation.”

Provost, who started in his position this week, said he has no further information on why McLaughlin was on leave.

Walczak, 55, of Chicopee, worked as business administrator for the South Hadley schools for 14 years. She previously held a similar position for Easthampton schools for 14 years, and was in Pittsfield for five years before that.

She has served on the board of the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials for 20 years.

Walczak lives with her husband, Stanley Walczak, who recently retired as superintendent of the Chicopee Parks and Recreation Department. They have a daughter, Marissa, 20, a student at Endicott College in Beverly.